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Environment - Mycoherbicides - 8-25-11

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Mycoherbicides

(Biological Methods of Drug Eradication) "Biological methods of eradication, known as mycoherbicides, have been researched for coca and opium poppy but not fully developed because of continuing concerns over the environmental, health, and legal implications. A strain of fusarium oxysporum, a soil borne mould, has been developed as a biological agent for the control of coca and is believed to have destroyed up to seventy per cent of the crop in parts of the Huallaga valley of Peru in 1984. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has undertaken research in Uzbekistan on the efficacy of the naturally occurring fungus pleospora papaveracea as a biological control agent for opium poppy. Both biological agents are reported to produce mycotoxins that are considered harmful to animals and plants and have the potential to mutate over time."